Legal Assistance Society records

The Legal Assistance Society at the University of Virginia School of Law was conceived in 1967 in respond to a question that Justice William J. Brennan had asked the year before during oral arguments heard at the Law School in March of 1966:

“Might it not be possible to expose a much larger percentage of the student body, at some time during the three years of law school to the realities of the attorney-client relationship?” (VLW, v. xix, no. 14, Feb. 9, 1967, p.2).

The Virginia Law Weekly announced the soon to be established new organization: “Beginning June 1, an office will be opened....by the Charlottesville-Albemarle Bar Association to provide free civil legal aid to any person who shows to be indigent and in genuine need of a lawyer’s help. Students of the law school will be needed to staff the office and to assist the lawyers in research, drawing up documents or anything else the lawyer assigned to the case would like him to do.” (VLW, v. xix, no. 24, May 4, 1967). The program began in the Fall of 1967.

The director of the newly formed Legal Aid Society was Myron P. Simmons, the assistant director was Peter W. Windrem and the faculty advisor was Professor Peter C. Mason. (VLW, v. xx, no. 2, p. 2, Thursday September 28, 1967.) The organization was directly affiliated (and still is) with the Charlottesville-Albemarle Legal Aid Society, Inc. The membership was limited to forty students.